Why have hundreds of Bollywood songs disappeared from Spotify?

Hundreds of Bollywood songs have been removed from Spotify after a failed licensing deal with an Indian record label.

Zee Music Company’s catalog of tracks, one of the country’s largest record labels, includes: make me yours from the movie Bediyah (2022) — Number one track on Spotify, India in the last two weeks.

It disappeared along with other popular songs streamed on the platform. Maya Mainu from jersey (2022), Macna from drive (2019), home home from Kedarnath (2018) and The Arima from Raise (2017).

“Spotify and Zee Music were unable to reach a licensing agreement,” Spotify said billboard.

“Through these negotiations, Spotify seeks to find creative ways to reach an agreement with Zee Music and will continue negotiations in good faith in the hope that a mutually agreeable solution will be found soon. increase.”

Spotify users have expressed their disappointment on social media.

“Is Spotify hostile to Bollywood? Because they are removing all good songs.At this point, I am going to remove Spotify,” one subscriber posted on Twitter.

“They removed Bollywood songs from Spotify.It is sad,” said another user.

A Bollywood music fan told the BBC: “I am so upset. This is insane.”

With over 93 million subscribers on YouTube, Zee Music Company is part of Zee Entertainment Enterprises, a media conglomerate with interests in the production and distribution of television, print, websites and films.

Late last year, Spotify announced it had over 205 million premium subscribers. Numbers from rivals Apple Music and Amazon Music aren’t readily available, but it’s widely considered to be the world’s largest music streaming service.

Updated: March 21, 2023, 7:54 AM